


Thaw

by kitkatt0430



Series: Leonard Snart Appreciation Week 2020 [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Barry is less impulsive than most people realize, Depression, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Len does not go to prison here, Lisa is quite smart, M/M, Pre-Slash, Sibling Reunion, Sort of Suicidal Thoughts, Suicidal Thoughts, cyber-stalking but only for a good cause, in that Barry basically asks Len if he's feeling suicidal, let's just pretend no one saw Barry's face entering the building, or so Lisa tells herself, picks up right after Lewis Snart dies, self reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:13:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27828076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430
Summary: Lewis Snart is dead.  Len's not really sure how to process that.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Leonard Snart, Leonard Snart & Lisa Snart
Series: Leonard Snart Appreciation Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036638
Comments: 24
Kudos: 152





	Thaw

**Author's Note:**

> For day 1 of Leonard Snart Appreciation Week - Favorite Episode
> 
> My favorite Leonard Snart episode has to be season 2's Family of Rogues. It's the first time we see Len truly be vulnerable. Mick's not there to help him, his love for Lisa gets used against him brutally, and he's absolutely desperate to keep Barry out of it. The look on his face as he says "sorry Barry" when he thinks Lewis killed his frenemy is just devastated. And while the most obvious reasons for killing his father are to protect Lisa and himself from further abuse, it's likely that protecting Barry is tied up in there now too. After all, the last time Len killed someone was also to protect Barry, but this time Lewis had seen Barry's face - thought he'd killed 'Sam' - so how difficult would it be for Lewis Snart, a truly bad person, to put together Barry's identity?
> 
> There's just so much to unpack about that episode - layers upon layers of Leonard Snart - and it leads directly into Len's decision to join the Legends. He wants to know who he is without his father there to hold him back or define his decisions. When he no longer needs to look over his shoulder for fear of finding Lewis Snart there... who does Leonard Snart choose to be?

"Lisa was safe!" Barry's voice sounds like it's a long way off as Len turns to look up at him. "Why did you do that?"

 _Shock_ , Len think's numbly. _This is shock. I'm in shock._

It makes sense, after all. How many years of abuse had he suffered at Lewis' hands? How many years spent looking over his shoulder wondering when his father would show up again? Wondering what the next scar he'd fail to protect Lisa from would look like? And with all the stress he'd been under from the moment Lewis kidnapped him and put that bomb in Lisa's neck... of course he'd be in shock now.

Lisa was never going to be safe as long as Lewis Snart was alive. It was a lesson Len had learned to often and too late.

"He broke my sister's heart," he replied, Cold Gun slipping from his hands. "Only fair I break his."

Barry looked up at the ceiling, face too easy to read even with the cowl in place. Distress, anxiety, uncertainty... determination. He sighed softly and muttered, "well shit" and then blurred into motion. And a moment later, so did Len.

The next thing he's really aware of is STAR Labs. He's cased the place enough times to recognize the place when the world rights itself again. (He'd even snuck in once and messed with their camera feeds, annoying Ramon so badly that the engineer was caught on CCTV footage muttering some of the foulest combination of English and Spanish insults that Len had ever heard. Kid really knew how to cuss, Len'd give him that.)

The Flash is gone again by the time Len's managed to keep from falling over at the sudden stop, but by then he's got an armful of Lisa to worry about. There's blood on her neck, but she's safe.

Safe and warm and so very alive... he buries his face in her hair and tells himself he doesn't give a shit that Snow and Ramon are watching. (Snow, the soul of discretion, drags her friend out of the room with her, over his complaints. Maybe Len owed her an apology over the bomb thing after all.)

"He's dead," Len finally says, quietly for her ears only. Lisa stiffens for a moment and then relaxes.

"He can't hurt us ever again," she responds.

"Never again," Len confirmed. Never, ever again.

Eventually, Len has to let go of her. He can't hold on to his baby sister forever, no matter how much he wants to. He can't bear to let her out of his sight until she's driven off on her motorcycle though. Len's promised to call her later, whatever the fallout with the Flash turns out to be. He doesn't have his Cold Gun at the moment and while he's still armed, it's not the same. The Cold Gun had made him feel powerful... invicible, until his own father knocked him down a few dozen pegs and reminded him that no matter how old he was, he could still turn right back into a scared teenager who'd do whatever it took to protect Lisa from Lewis' fists.

No matter what happens, Len will never regret pulling that trigger.

Len's back in the cortex, getting side-eyed by Snow and Ramon again, when Barry runs back in. No Cold Gun in hand. 

"Where's Lisa?" Barry asked, glancing around.

"Sent her home already," Len said. "I don't have my ride here, or I'd have gone with her." A lie. He's desperate to know where Barry went after dropping him off. "What took so long?"

Barry sighed and looked between Len and Ramon, "I destroyed the Cold Gun."

"What?" Len demanded, a touch angrily even as Ramon said the same thing in a much more delighted tone.

He sighed again. "Look, Cisco, Caitlin, can I have a minute alone with him?" Barry gave Len a significant look and he subsided for the moment, waiting quietly while once again Ramon and Snow left the room. Only then did Barry continue.

"I overloaded the Cold Gun. It'll look like the gun was booby trapped and that's what killed Lewis. It'll be easy to argue he stole it from you and with the trigger device in his pocket, it won't take long to connect him to the man he murdered earlier today. I assume that was to make a point to you about what would happen to Lisa if you didn't obey?" Barry voice is steady, but Len blanches at the memory... and the realization that Barry saw the body too. Not the bloody explosion, but even the aftermath had been grizzly to view.

He'd never really thought about how much death Barry had probably seen even without taking being the Flash into account. He was a CSI... a badge... and he'd just admitted to staging a crime scene to look like something it wasn't. 

Should Len feel guilty about that? Probably. Mostly... mostly he just felt grateful.

"His fingerprints are the only ones on the outside of the gun. So yours are probably still all over the inside from tinkering with it, but that just lends to the story that he got the gun from you. As far as anyone will ever know, your father went to the vault alone and killed himself when he tried to use the Cold Gun a second time."

"Wouldn't it have been easier to just let me get arrested?" Len asked, trying to pretend he felt nonchalant about the whole thing. He didn't, of course. He really, really didn't.

He didn't know how he felt, actually. His head was such a mess...

"Easier, yes. But we had a deal," Barry said, tone firm.

"And I broke it."

"No innocents," Barry corrected. "You didn't break anything. Not with me."

"I thought he shot you," Len admitted, words coming out harshly.

Barry shrugged, pulling the cowl off and running a hand through his hair. Len's fingers itched to do the same.

"I caught the bullet, then twisted and fell. So it looked like I'd been shot, but if he'd stuck around there'd have been no blood pooling on the floor and it would've given me away." Barry gave Len a worried glance. "You look like hell. Where can I take you? Someplace safe... wherever Lisa went?"

Len rattled off the address of the safe house Lisa'd said she was headed to. They'd have to change places later, but considering Lewis had found one of their bolt holes - had tracked them there and knocked them out in what was supposed to be a place of safety - Len would've started looking for new places anyway. If one was compromised, then they all probably were. And even if they weren't, he wasn't going to feel safe in those places anymore. Not even with Lewis dead.

Barry runs Len there and then comes back a few minutes later. Not staying to talk or even stopping long enough to be anything more than a blur of light and motion. But he leaves behind on the kitchen counter two brand new mugs, a box of Swiss Miss, and a container of almond milk that matches the brand in their safe house refrigerator - which they were nearly out of before the Flash's little shopping trip. There's also a packet of break and bake sugar cookies that Lisa pounces on.

"Hot cocoa, huh?" she asked, tone teasing - if a bit brittle underneath, given the difficulty of the day. "He already knows all your vices."

"Yeah," he muttered, looking at the two mugs in bemusement. One shaded in a yellow gradient and clearly meant for Lisa. The other one with snowflakes on it for Len. "He clearly does."

* * *

It takes a few days to work out the new safe houses. And then, safely ensconced in an apartment on the edge of where Central City becomes Keystone, Len gets into bed one evening and just... proceeds not to get out of bed for several days

Oh, he gets up to eat when Lisa cooks something or to bring the occasional snack or drink back to bed with him. And he gets up to use the bathroom and, when Lisa pointedly reminds him that people start to reek if they don't shower often enough, to wash up. But he's just... tired all of the time. 

Len just wants to sleep. He's exhausted by... everything.

And then one morning, Lisa drags Len out of bed and into the kitchen, a smug look on her face that never fails to make Len exceptionally wary of whatever she has planned. He's right to be wary.

There is a speedster in their kitchen making pancakes. Barry looks up from where he's whisking blueberries into pancake batter - a smudge of flour on his cheek that should not be making Len's chest go all fluttery - and smiles.

"Lisa," Len said, voice very, carefully, even. "What the hell?"

* * *

Lisa is no stranger to her brother's depressive episodes. She knows the routine. She also knows that the last time things were this bad for Lenny, it was after Mick got burned and Lenny blamed himself. 

That one was hard enough for him to drag himself out of. But this is about Lewis and that's always the worst for them. She doesn't know what to do or say to help him through this one, because she's a little worried that her own presence is making things worse. Lenny always feels like he has to protect her, but he couldn't this time. He had to depend on other people to save her. But... Lisa might - might - have a secret weapon this time. If she can figure out the answer to the ultimate riddle of Central City. 

Who is the Flash?

Cisco knows and that Lisa's starting point. She can't ask him - he'd never tell, not without her applying pressure first and she doesn't want to wreck their nascent friendship with something like that. But she can inspect his facebook page because clearly Cisco and the Flash are facebook friends. They're probably tumblr mutuals and following each other on twitter too. She just has to follow the clues and hope Cisco can forgive a little social media stalking in the name of her brother's mental health.

She also goes to Iris West's blog. The journalist doesn't post there as often now that she works at the CCPN, but the earliest and most reliable sightings of the Flash were meticulously tracked in her blog. When Lisa first learned about Len's speedy little obsession, this was the first blog on the subject of the Streak where Lisa actually enjoyed the writing. It's also the source of the Flash's current moniker and reason to believe that West has actually spoken to the Flash more than a few times since the advent of her blog.

So surely there are clues in there too. 

Most of Cisco's friend pics for the last year involve Caitlin Snow - whose boobs are quite real and would not flatten adequately enough for her to be the Flash - and Barry Allen, whom Lisa remembers from when she ambushed Cisco at Jitters the other day. He's a CSI, which would account for the vigilante's team ups with the cops, and he was also approximately the right height and build for the Flash. Thus her prime suspect instantly becomes Barry Allen. Switching over to West's blog gives Lisa a timeframe for when the Flash first became active. Approximate ten months, maybe a few weeks earlier than that, after the accelerator explosion wrecked the city. What was Barry Allen up to during that time?

He was in a coma, apparently. For nine months after the accelerator went boom, Barry Allen was in a coma. Lots of well wishes on his facebook page during that time. College and high school friends coming out of the woodwork to talk about what a kind hearted person he was and some asshole named Tony who gets dog piled for saying the guy deserved it. Looked like Barry dutifully replied to all of them upon waking up. Such a nice, sweet guy.

If this was the Flash, no wonder Lenny thought the kid was too good for him. Which was bullshit because Lenny deserved the best, but Lisa would admit to being a little bit biased. But only a little.

But here's a guy who was clearly affected by the accelerator, given the timing of the lightning strike and the coma. The Flash's symbol was a lightning bolt, which could be related to the lightning-esque trail he left when running but also worked as a nod to having been struck by lightning. And when Barry Allen woke up, suddenly the Flash is streaking around the city. Add to that his friendship with the only remaining nerds of STAR Labs, the fact that much of his coma was spent convalescing at STAR Labs, and both Cisco and Caitlin were well aware of the Flash's identity...

The math added up. Barry Allen was the Flash.

Lisa was going to have to rub it in, when Len was feeling better, that what took him a complicated kidnapping plot only took her about forty-eight hours trawling through blogs and social media websites.

(She also learned that Barry Allen and Iris West were foster siblings, which was absolutely hilarious. And now that she knew, Lisa was fairly certain she could pinpoint when Iris West finally found out what Barry Allen was up to.)

Of course, discovering the Flash's identity was only step one. Now she had to find the guy and convince him to help her give Len the support he needed to start fighting back against his depression. Without getting herself arrested, preferably. 

A little real life stalking gives Lisa confirmation that Barry Allen is indeed the Flash. She really needs to talk to him about having more than one 'take off point' for running off at the end of the day. But it works in her favor as on the third day of surveillance, she gets there before him and is cheerfully waiting for him when he comes around the corner.

"Hi, Barry," Lisa greeted. "How's Cisco?"

"Good," the guy squeaked, clearly startled by her being there and knowing his name. "Um... do you need to talk to him?"

"Oh, no, I've got his number. And while I'm curious to know whether he's cool with being in a friends-with-benefits sort of situation, I'm here to talk to you about my brother. I've spent way too long cyber stalking your friends this week to figure out who you are over this; I probably owe Cisco an apology for that. But you may want to speed us somewhere else before we have this conversation go any further." She put emphasis on the word 'speed' of course, earning an exasperated and long suffering sigh from the CSI.

"Yeah, sure, why not." He glanced over his shoulder and then took off, a blur of light that scooped Lisa up before she could have second thoughts about this.

When the light fades, they're in a kitchen. Nice house, craftsman style from the look of it. "Home sweet home?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah. Joe won't be home for at least another hour, so we've got time to talk here." He headed for the fridge, "do you want something to drink?" He fetched himself a soda and looked curiously at her.

"Water'd be nice." She settled at the kitchen table while Barry laid out their drinks and a power bar for himself to snack on. All that running was probably calorie intensive, she mused.

"How've you been?" Barry asked politely sitting down across from her.

"Healing up quite nicely. It'll probably scar a little, but..." she touched the side of her neck. "Small price to pay and a good reminder that my father can never touch me again."

"Good. I take it Len's not doing quite so well," Barry filled in astutely.

"No. I haven't seen him this depressed in years. And I honestly don't know how to draw him out of this. I want him to go to therapy, but he's always refused in the past." In a pitch perfect mockery of her brother, she drawled, "criminals don't see therapists, Lise."

Barry snorted in amusement, though he sobered pretty much immediately. "Why do you think I can help?"

"Because he respects you," Lisa said. "You refused to give up on him when Lewis put him in danger. I'm hoping you'll refuse to give up on him when it's his own brain conspiring against him this time."

He smiled fondly and hummed thoughtfully. "What's his favorite breakfast food?"

That question shouldn't have felt like such a relief, but Lisa certainly felt like a weight was easing off her shoulders anyway.

* * *

Barry had a lot of faith in Leonard Snart. Probably too much, considering the first time they fought - truly fought - speedster vs Captain Cold, Len murdered someone in front of him. But there was something about the man that intrigued Barry.

Also he was hot. There was definitely that. Though Barry would like to imagine he's smart enough not to let his attraction to Snart override his good sense. 

Barry can think through his choices at the speed of sound if he wants to. Spend the equivalent of hours of deliberation in only a few minutes. So he might seem impulsive to others - and has been called out on it enough this last year - but the truth is that he's much more prone to overthinking things than underthinking them these days. 

So Barry has far too much time to consider and reconsider Lisa Snart's request and the question of how to help Leonard Snart.

He's not going to encourage the man to commit theft, though Barry has no doubt that planning a heist would help Len's state of mind immeasurably. Though what Snart really needs is something challenging to wrap his brain around. And therapy, like his sister said but Barry's not going to bet on Len seeking out professional help any time soon.

There's the question of the Cold Gun too. Barry had rather assumed that Snart would either steal the original back from STAR Labs, or at least steal the parts he needed to make a new one. But if that was the plan then Len had made no moves to actually enact that plan. Certainly he couldn't depend on Cisco to make him another gun - Barry was fairly certain Lisa wouldn't let him go the kidnapping and intimidation route again and Cisco would never do it voluntarily. Making the new gun himself would be a challenge for sure... and maybe that was the place to start.

(Along with blueberry pancakes, apparently.)

There were a few things that the Cold Gun absolutely could not do without that were extremely hard to procure. The most difficult, and the one to which the gun owed its ability to instantly freeze things, was a sub-zero micro particle generator. Excluding the one in use in the original Cold Gun they kept stored away under lock and key in the most locked down part of STAR Labs (the makeshift morgue, actually, and they did remove Tony's body to give him a proper burial after learning that EoWells had not done so), STAR Labs had three of these generators. And Cisco would no doubt maim Barry if he gave one to Len.

Which is why Barry spends an afternoon building one. It's fussy work and Barry is distinctly reminded of why he didn't enjoy the mechanical engineering course he'd taken as an elective one semester of college (he'd rather program machines than build them), but it's worth it to have a functional micro-generator pulsing with soft blue light when he's done. It passes all safety inspections and works perfectly when Barry swaps it out with the one in their Cold Gun for testing purposes. Which is wonderful because that means Barry won't have to try again and he won't have to explain to Cisco or Caitlin why he was playing with the Cold Gun in the upper levels of the garage.

He wraps the micro-generator up the next morning, gathers all the ingredients he needs for a ridiculous amount of pancakes, and heads out to the address for Lisa and Len's current safe house. She had promised him lots of milk, orange juice, syrup, and baking implements. He just had to bring the blueberries, egg, and pancake mix.

Lisa lets Barry in and helps him get setup to start baking. Once he's got a good stack of pancakes going - he might've already snacked on a few - Lisa fetches Len. And the look on his face is priceless. If nothing else, showing up was well worth that moment.

* * *

"What the hell, Lisa?" Len repeats, deciding to ignore the speedster in his kitchen for now and scowl at his sister.

She was seated at the kitchen counter, idly inspecting her nails and pretending everything was perfectly normal and fine. "Yes, Lenny? Is there a problem?"

"What is he doing in our kitchen?"

"Who, Barry? Making pancakes." She fluttered her lashes at Len. "I'd have thought that was obvious."

Len breathes in slowly. Counts to ten. Breathes out just as slowly. He still feels vaguely homicidal, so he's not really sure that helped him any.

"Why is Barry Allen in our kitchen? And I swear to god, Lise, if you say 'making pancakes' again..."

Barry snickers. Len scowls at him, but Barry just gestures to the pancake stack. "They're blueberry," he offers, as if that's supposed to entice Len into calming down and just going with this bizarre farce. (It's tempting. They smell so good... and was that Canadian maple syrup Len saw off to the side? Oh that was the good stuff...)

"He's here because I've been concerned about you and I think he can help, okay?" Lisa crossed her arms and scowled back. "Do you know how scared I was after Mick got hurt in that fire a few years ago? And not over Mick. Once I knew he was on the mend I knew he'd be fine. But you just... shut down, Len. And you're shutting down again and I can't..." her voice cracked and she closed her eyes, running a neatly manicured hand over her face. "You can't shut down on me this time, Len. You don't get to scare me like that again."

"Lise..."

"You don't," she repeated emphatically. "You fight everything, Len, whether you need to or not. So promise me you're gonna fight this too."

"I promise, okay?" He sighed and walked over, pulling Lisa off the stool into a hug. "I promise, Lise."

"Good." She sniffled and burrowed into his arms for a long while. Len could see Barry watching them quietly, but he just stayed in the kitchen making pancakes and generally just letting them be. Eventually, though, Lisa pulled out of the hug. "You need to talk to him, Lenny," she murmured, patting Len's shoulder.

Heading to the door, she slipped on some shoes and grabbed her purse. "I promised Cisco I'd go shopping with him to make up for the cyber stalking. So apparently I'll be at tech stores all day if you need me."

And with that it was just Len and Barry alone in the apartment with copious amounts of blueberry pancakes.

"I hope you don't expect me to eat all that," Len finally said to Barry, piling a few pancakes onto a plate for himself along with some orange juice on the side. 

"Most of this is for me," Barry said, finally taking a break from the cooking to sit with his own plate of food. "I eat a lot these days."

"She's overreacting," Len objected.

"Maybe. She's your sister, so it's allowed," Barry pointed out. 

Barry's pancakes were disappearing a lot faster than Len's but he never actually the speedster eat. And then suddenly Barry had more pancakes on his plate. It was kind of funny, actually.

Len sighed quietly and ate his pancakes. 

"It does sound like she has reason to be worried," Barry continued when Len failed to reply. "I may not know you very well, but I suspect staying in bed all day isn't exactly a normal thing for you."

"I'm just tired... and stressed." And making excuses, Len acknowledged. To himself anyway. 

"Wanting to go to sleep and not wake up is considered a form of suicidal ideation." Barry's tone was blunt. "Is that what's going on here?"

"No. I'm not suicidal," Len refuted. Though he paused a moment because... that wasn't what was going on, was it? But, no. "I want to wake up and not hate myself for killing Lewis. I want to wake up and not hate myself for taking so long to kill him. I want..." to not talk about this. "I want to wake up in a world where my father wasn't such a fucking monster." Quietly... "I want to stop being back there in that damn vault with him, every time I close my eyes when I'm awake."

Shakily, well aware he's said too much, Len asked, "so what's new with you? Locked up any interesting metas in that secret prison of yours recently?"

Barry winced. "No. I'm trying to do things better these days. Put a former associate of yours, Rosa Dillon, in Iron Heights recently. But the pipeline is being mostly dismantled."

"How is Rosa doing? I'm surprised Scudder wasn't with her. Those two were attached at the hip, last I saw them," Len said, perking back up. "Night of the accelerator's untimely explosion, in fact."

"Sam Scudder?" Barry asked for clarification's sake. "No sign of him."

"What's her power?"

"Twofold. She can make anything spin like a top, including herself. But she can also induce instant vertigo, which sucks. But then so does spinning at superspeed, so..." Barry grinned as Len laughed. "I'm quitting my job at the CCPD."

"Really?" Len's eyebrows went up. "Why's that? Because of..."

"Don't flatter yourself. I'm not quitting because of what happened with you. It's... been a while coming, actually. I've spent the last year trying to balance working for the CCPD to help enforce the law and as the Flash helping to break the law... and failing spectacularly to manage any sort of balance whatsoever. I can't have it both ways and something had to give. That something was my job. I inherited STAR Labs, so I could just work there if I want. I always was interested in the research side of science. Though I'm leaning towards getting my PhD first. Joe's pissed I'm quitting and he is blaming you, however." Barry gave an exaggerated shrug. "So maybe steer clear of him for a while once you're finally spending time outside your apartment again. I can catch bullets, but that's not really your speed."

Len smiled at the pun. 

"I do have a challenge for you that ought to keep you busy, give you a reason to start getting up in the morning maybe." Barry turned into a blur of light for a moment, returning to his chair with a small case in hand. "I made it myself, so I hope you like it. And, yes, it works just as well as the ones Cisco's made."

Intrigued despite himself, Len popped open the case and immediately recognized the small device nestled inside. He'd taken apart and put together his Cold Gun enough times, after all. "It's a sub zero micro particle generator."

"Yup. Worked just fine in the original Cold Gun. Which you can't have."

"But with this I could make my own. Eventually, anyway. Why...?" Len stared uncomprehendingly at Barry, who blushed and ducked his head.

"It wouldn't be the same. Being the Flash, that is. It'd get boring, without Captain Cold around to cause trouble. And the whole Captain Cold motif really doesn't work without the Cold Gun, so..."

"It'd take me a while to acquire the rest of the parts. I'll have to steal most of it," he added with a smirk.

"I didn't hear that," Barry groaned, getting another plate full of pancakes. "I did not," he pointed his fork at Len sternly as he repeated himself, "hear that."

"Whatever. You're encouraging me to continue being a thief here." Len smirked. 

"I've never wanted you to stop being a thief. That's part of what makes you such a challenge. And the only thing I asked you to change, you did." Barry made a soft yum noise as he finally started visibly eating the pancakes on his plate.

The sound Barry made ought to be illegal. It made Len want things he shouldn't.

He ought to argue. Barry asked Len to stop killing, but he's done it twice since then. But Len can already hear Barry's argument. Once to protect Barry and once to protect himself and Lisa. Killing in defense another's life, or in self defense, is technically legal. And... if Len's being honest with himself, it's twice to save Barry. What Lewis did to Lisa - what he put Len through - was enough that Len would've killed him this time anyway. But Lewis had all the pieces necessary to figure out the Flash's identity. All he'd needed was to find out the Sam wasn't dead and was actually a CSI named Barry Allen and... Lewis might not have been the master thief his son became, but he was smart all the same. Len hadn't wanted to risk it.

Len hadn't wanted to risk Barry. Barry who trusted Len with the Cold Gun enough to give him the first piece for recreating it. He doesn't know how to deal with this. With any of it.

He could deal with it later. "The pancakes are good. Where'd you learn how to cook?"

* * *

The morning after Barry's little impromptu visit, Len wakes up in the morning to the sound of his alarm clock blaring. He'd finally reset the alarm the night before, though he was regretting it now. It was too early. Surely he could just... go back to sleep for a while longer.

It was tempting.

But Len thought about Lisa's distraught face as she accused him of shutting down and Barry's bright smile when Len opened the case with the particle generator inside. And he got up and showered and started his day. As hard as it was to get out of bed, Len did it anyway.

He knew it was going to be just as hard to make himself get up tomorrow and the next day and... but when Lisa came out of her room to see Len already up and dressed and working on plans for the next Cold Gun, her whole face lit up. Len smiled back and showed her the particle generator Barry had given him.

This wasn't going to be easy, fighting against something entirely in his head. But he'd promised and... Len was starting to think this was a fight he could win.


End file.
